Increasing energy conservation through tenant engagement in high rise buildings in Toronto

Residential high-rise buildings consume large amounts of energy for their cooling and heating needs. A large portion of this energy is wasted due to aging infrastructure, lack of proper maintenance, and occupants lack of awareness about energy conservation measures. While the economic and environmental benefits of physical retrofit of aging high-rises is well understood in terms of return of investment (ROI), the same understanding is very limited as it relates to economic, environmental as well as social benefits of engaging occupants. In recent years, a number of case studies have focused on strategies for engaging tenants in order to achieve additional savings beyond typical physical upgrades, however, there is still no coherent established practice that would identify a framework and tangible processes for a sustainable service involving tenant engagement strategies. Hence, this proposal aims to
identify, review and synthesize successful case studies in order to shed light on this area of research and inform the development of tenant engagement processes. This project benefits Imagine My City as it increases their capacity to advance its mandate to enable and increase productive and meaningful community-based research on issues related to the built environment.

Faculty Supervisor:

Philip Walsh

Student:

Pallavi Roy

Partner:

Imagine My City

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Management of companies and enterprises

University:

Ryerson University